Big Deal

How do you raise $250 million for a start-up? It probably helps to be an associate of billionaire investor Warren Buffett. Steven Gluckstern, who handled Buffett's reinsurance holdings, is using the money to launch Centre Reinsurance Holdings Ltd., providing coverage for some of the world's biggest insurers from day one. The Bermuda firm says it's the first to focus exclusively on "finite risk insurance," which other companies offer only as a sideline. -- Leslie Brokaw